“The sector continues to put the horrid (winter) weather behind it and is moving on,” said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. “It certainly helps that confidence is higher, borrowing costs are slipped from the start of the year and it is reportedly becoming less strenuous to obtain a mortgage.”
In a separate report last week, the Realtors said completed sales of existing homes rose 4.9 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million homes. Still, sales are down 5 percent year-over-year.
The Realtors forecast that sales of existing homes will decline 2.8 percent this year to 4.95 million, compared with 5.1 million in 2013.
Sales of new homes jumped 18.6 percent last month to an annual rate of 504,000, the highest level since May 2008, the government said last week
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